CX skills courses

joey54321

I did my first CX race this weekend and realised a couple of things:

A) its ridiculously fun
I'm gonna be quite sore after each race (probably)
C) I'm useless at technical offroad riding

I understand I'll probably get better by just racing more but I feel I'd gain quite a lot and learn significantly faster by learning from someone. Does anyone know of any courses available? A day out in a small group with an instructor of sorts.

I'm based in the eastern region but wouldn't mind driving within reason.

tgotb

Quite a few clubs have training sessions on weekday evenings during the season, generally somewhere with some ambient light available from nearby streetlights/floodlights. Many are coached, and open to members of other clubs. If you can find one of those, it'll get you up to speed in no time...

jobless

Failing that - buy yourself some cones. and set them out in a park in different configurations (figure of 8 etc). and ride round them at speed for a few hours. this makes a hell of a difference. most cx races round my way are in fields or parks so are on grass and the places where you lose time is the slow speed stuff.

Also try putting them in a circle and ride around that as fast as you can until you fall off. Then do it the other way. you'll be surprised at how fast and how low you can go.

Also if you have more than 35psi in your tyres you are riding them too hard too.

I am rubbish. but doing this regularly has helped my with confidence and speed.

devhads

Was it the Eastern League race yesterday? If so, hope you enjoyed it, I was one of the organisers. If you were in the seniors race after the downpour, you needed pretty good technique to stay upright on some parts of the course so don't feel too bad.

If you're local to where the race was, our club has weekly skills sessions for members. It is members only and is usually oversubscribed but they are very good. There's a club based in Hitchin that runs weekly evening open sessions that are very skills based if your local to there. PM me and I can give you details. Otherwise if you're based in a more eastern part of the region it may be worth posting on the Easterncross Facebook page.

And by the way if it was the Eastern league race, all CX races are fun but ours is the funnest!

joey54321

PM sent, thanks for the offer.

Hmm, sounds like the 65-70psi I had in my tyres was perhaps a little much then...to scared of pinch flats and too much of a roadie I guess.

Jterrier

joey54321 wrote:

PM sent, thanks for the offer.

Hmm, sounds like the 65-70psi I had in my tyres was perhaps a little much then...to scared of pinch flats and too much of a roadie I guess.

God, how have you still got teeth in your head

Try 25psi next time.

joey54321

Well, I found the course was either pretty smooth (fairly compacted mud or tarmac) or I was standing up...but I don't think the standing up was particularly because of the tyre pressure.

tgotb

joey54321 wrote:

Well, I found the course was either pretty smooth (fairly compacted mud or tarmac) or I was standing up...but I don't think the standing up was particularly because of the tyre pressure.

You still want to be somewhere nearer 25psi!

In muddy conditions, lower pressure gives you grip; when it's hard and dry it gives you suspension. At lower pressures the bike can travel in a straight line over the ground while the tyres absorb the irregularities; at higher pressures, the whole bike's moving up and down with every bump. Even if your teeth don't get rattled out, it's still pretty hard work...

The only time I'd consider going as high as 30psi would be on the road, to ride to a race or training session (and I'd be letting a load of air out when I got there...)